Connecticut's SB1058 - an Update to TCPA

Summary

The webinar, hosted by PossibleNOW, breaks down Connecticut Senate Bill 1058, which enacts stringent telemarketing restrictions. Unlike other state laws, SB 1058 prohibits all unsolicited telephonic sales calls to Connecticut residents—regardless of whether the call is manually dialed or if the recipient is on a Do Not Call (DNC) list—unless specific exemptions apply. These exemptions include having express written consent, existing business relationships (EBRs) within the past 12 months, or calls responding to inquiries. Notably, business-to-business (B2B), political, nonprofit, debt collection, and informational calls are exempt. The law mandates that within the first 10 seconds of a call, the caller must disclose their identity and intent and offer the recipient options to end the call or be added to the caller’s internal DNC list. Connecticut also tightens permissible call hours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (shorter than the federal window) and introduces a rebuttable presumption: any call to a Connecticut area code is assumed to fall under the law unless proven otherwise.

To assist with compliance, PossibleNOW’s DNC solution integrates area-code-based suppression and will expand in Q1 2024 to include scrubbing by state of residency via API. This dual approach—area code and residency—will allow users to apply the strictest applicable rule, whether it’s Connecticut’s or another state’s. The law’s enforcement implications are serious, with penalties of $2,000 per violation and the possibility of private legal action under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act. While there is no statutory Safe Harbor provision under SB 1058, organizations are encouraged to maintain robust compliance procedures, especially since enforcement expectations remain unclear. Existing TCPA-compliant consent mechanisms (e.g., web forms or recorded affirmations) remain valid for Connecticut calls. The webinar concludes with a Q&A session addressing consent, EBR application, and operational implementation of the new rules.

"State-level changes are where we think we comply becomes risky fast. Update documented rules, confirm operational workflows, and validate that your systems enforce the new requirements consistently."